conflicting emotions
by Asher36
Summary: a soul with no resistant host actually sympathises for the human race. does not want them dead. when she finds the resistance and falls in love with a newly uninserted human, she has to make a choice. which only makes it hard for her. follow Moonbeam in her story to figure out what she really wants. Plz read and review :)
1. Chapter 1

Chapter one: Waking up

_Agonizing pain grabs my body, blood flowing from a broken nose, and a broken body. I lie there on the concrete floor in a pool of my blood, in a suicide attempt that failed. They would arrive any minute. I hope to be dead by then. I shift my body slightly, and nearly scream. Every part of my body screams out in pain, and more blood flows out of me, forming an ever growing crimson pool of it. Bleeding to death is slow and agonizing, but the better option than having one of those aliens implanted inside my body and erase me. That's all they would do. _

_ I had heard about a pocket of resistance, living somewhere in Arizona. Sadly, it appears that the information I had received from I thought was a trusted source, lands me in a trap. I hear voices getting closer to me and I know it's too late for me now. Regardless of this, I struggle to move, only resulting in spilling more of my blood onto the ground which causes pure agony for me. The crimson pool is growing larger, and I can feel the hot, sticky stuff sticking to my skin and clothes. I have been lying in this pool for at least an hour now. I wish I am dead, but I do not get my wish. _

_ A blindingly bright light shines on my face, but I don't make the effort to look up. I have signed off on life, but I still refuse to look into the faces of my "rescuers". _

_ "She's still alive." A deep, concern-filled, voice says. "But barely."_

_ "Despite the damage, this soul needs a host and if she's not dead, then she can fulfill her purpose." A shrill voice barks back. _

_ It appears all the rumors about the Seekers I have heard are true. More have become impatient and aggressive with other souls, which is supposedly not natural among them. The cause for this is more of them have resistant hosts. I already know that I will not be a resistant host, I will not have the strength to hang around when a filthy, life-stealing bug is implanted in my body. _

_ I can feel hands moving under my body, lifting me up. Every part of me wants to run away, is shying away from their touch, but I have no strength to resist. I feel my eyelids slowly growing heavier, then everything goes black._

The Soul:

My eyes slowly open, and very nearly snap closed again. The light in the room is extraordinarily bright and it burns my unaccustomed eyes. I did not, however, want to plunge back into the darkness, for I fear I will plunge back into my host's final memory. It is bitter and painful to watch my host trying to commit suicide, and only have it fail. Humans are a strange, yet fascinating race, ones that can be calm and peaceful, but also become full of rage and violence. The range of emotion is one I have never experience in my previous three lives. Also, there is a pocket of a resistance growing, they have a soul among them named Wanderer. I know this from my host's memories, but that's all I do know.

I don't know where my host had received the information, but I do not want to share it, as its clearly dangerous information to have, and if I am being honest, I do not care to see the rest of the human race completely eradicated. I am sympathetic for the human race, and do not want them to perish. I am strange that way, despite the humans being a violent race that will typically kill us on sight, I do not want them gone.

I finally open my eyes fully, seeing a white tiled ceiling above me, with large fluorescent lights hanging from them. It starts burning my eyes to stare at them, so I quickly look away, and see a black table with instruments on them that I don't recognize. Then I let my eyes flit up, seeing a male with ice blue eyes, short white hair, which is weird because he has a young face, a pointed chin, a flat nose, and he is dressed in a white uniform staring down at me. I realize his gaze is analytical, as if he is checking to make sure every part of me is functioning as it should be. That is probably what he is doing. I realize that this is the Healer, who must have been responsible for inserting me into this body. I feel a strange sense of grief, of loss for this human life that has been lost, so that I may live on this planet. I clear that feeling from me, as it is not going to get me anywhere, and I already know that. The Healer continues to look me over, with this impassive, unemotional gaze. I wonder how he does that, these human emotions are so overwhelming that I feel like I am going to be overloaded. How is it possible for a creature to feel such intense emotions? I do not understand it, and I don't feel like I will ever be able to. I really look at the Healer's eyes when they come back to my face, and notice the pulsing silver on the inside lining of the iris, blending into the iris, so the blue has silvery glow to it. It marks him for my species, but yet, humans still know how to disguise themselves among us, even without the silver eyes. That's a little bit of a scary thought to me.

The Healer clears his throat. "It appears you have acclimated properly. Due to the extensive injury of this host, we weren't sure if even our Healing would be enough to be a suitable host."

I blink at him. "Doesn't the Healing process always work? I have never heard of a failure."

The Healer softly sighs. "She was in extreme disrepair. The injuries she received from the suicide attempt were very nearly fatal. Luckily, we could heal her back to full health."

I feel stiffness in my limbs, from lying still for a long period of time. They could not have been moved in a few days, maybe even a week or more. I could not know. I probably have only been in the body for maybe a few hours, or even a day. I slowly begin to sit up, testing the movement of the body's torso. It functions normally. I look at my slim hands, with long slender fingers, with short stubby nails, and I flex them. It feels weird, having fingers like this. I have no experience with these sort of hands. I notice the fair, pale skin, almost like it has never seen the sunlight before, and I don't seem to have a very large stature, which means I'm probably not heavy either. If I am as small as I think…I'm not so sure if I like having a small host…

"How long have I been here?" I ask, relieved that I have a more adult-toned voice. I was expecting to sound more childish.

"You were in your tank for a few days, as the Healing process took longer than expected…the body was here for…" He pulls out a pocket computer and taps away at it with a stylus. "Two weeks and three days. One of the longest Healing procedures I've done in my career."

"The Host suffered a lot of damage trying to escape then." I whisper, wondering.

"Yes…but she must've just given up on life, because we did extensive brain examinations, and her previous personality is completely gone." The Healer tries to reassure me, but his voice is stiff, uncertain.

"Did you expect resistance?" I manage to control the anger surging in me. It is an unnatural feeling for me, and I have never felt it so intensely, so it is hard to manage.

"Yes…" He is reluctant to answer. "But, at the very least, you should have no trouble acclimating to your new life, here on Earth."

I feel a surge of relief through my body. I prepare to stand up, my fingers gripping the edge of my bed, the paper crackling underneath my hands, it feels strange. I slowly allow my bare feet to come in contact with the cool tile floor and soon I'm standing on my own. The tile is smooth and cool under my feet, and I revel in this feeling. This life will be an interesting one. The senses in this host are a lot stronger than the last ones I have lived in. I have never been able to feel things with such…intensity. It is the only word my mind seems capable of producing right now. I stop take my hands off the bed, and I'm standing completely of my free will.

I am obviously short. My brain gives me information I didn't know before, in regards to height. My Healer is a good 6 feet two inches tall, which is a full foot and two inches taller than me. I'm only five foot even. Pathetically small, but I guess it cannot be helped as I could not pick my host, therefore I cannot be so picky. I wonder if I could request a switch, but I decide against asking, as I must live my life out in this Host. I do not want to be counted with the Skippers.

"This is overwhelming for you, isn't it?" My Healer asks with a kind, gentle voice.

I nod. "Yes. I have never had any senses, or emotions, be so intense before in lives I've lived before this one."

He smiles. "Do not worry. You will adjust quickly."

"Where do I stay?" I ask.

He looks down at his pocket computer and taps away at it again. "I have arrangements made for you to stay with another soul in an apartment complex not too far from here. You've said that you aren't comfortable living alone?"

I nod again. "Yes, that is correct."

"Alright." He tucks the pocket computer into his coat pocket. "Follow me please." He goes to a door on the far side of the room and pushes it open, revealing a carpeted hallway, with crème colored walls and more doors. Healers are going up and down the halls, disappearing into other hallways and ones that must be on the where we are as people disappear to the right and left. I step forward and into the hallway, looking around. To my left there is a shorter hallway, that leads to a set of double doors and a sign in red letters above it says SURGERY. I assume that is where insertions happen. I must be in a Recovery room, as some Hosts need when they have suffered extreme trauma, like mine. The Healer touches my shoulder, and turns me to the right, where there is another set of doors, with an EXIT sign above them. He keeps a gentle hand on my shoulder as he leads me that direction. Before we reach the doors, we stop at this desk, where a woman is sitting in a chair, with a blue shirt and pants, gray hair pulled up in a bun, and wears glasses and is tapping away at a computer. My Healer clears his throat to get her attention. She looks up, and I can tell she is older. Her skin is folded, and wrinkled. The skin on her fingers is the same way.

"I'm here to check out this patient." The Healer says.

The woman looks at me. "Do you have a name?"

I hesitate; the Healer's are the ones who give the names.

The Healer speaks. "Her name is Moonbeam."

The woman enters that into the computer and then looks at my Healer again. "Anything to monitor?"

The Healer shakes his head and the woman taps away at her computer again. I keep watching and then look at the exit and my stomach muscles tighten in anticipation. I am about to start a new life, and I am about 30 feet away of stepping out of the hospital. I realize that my excitement starts going crazy and I have to repress it, which is difficult. How am I supposed to adjust to emotions that just go crazy on their own? I will figure it out.

"Is she the one who requested to live with another soul?" The woman asks and I turn my attention back to her.

"Yes, she is." The Healer says. "I'm going to take her to meet her right now."

"Alright, you are cleared to leave." The woman smiles at me and I turn away, facing the exit doors. I am nervous.

I am not prepared for this, in any way. Despite learning that the world is a completely peaceful place, I have no idea if I am ready to face a planet, that still has scars from the violence it has once allowed, the humans brutally murdering one another.

I clear my head of those thoughts as the Healer pushes open a door, and a rush of cold air hits me in the face, along with sunlight, so I squint as I step outside.

"Sorry you don't have anything to protect yourself from the cold." The Healer quickly says apologetically. "You'll have things to change into once you are at your apartment."

I nod once and continue walking, onto a sidewalk. There is a downward slanting driveway, and then a packed road. I must be in what they call a downtown area. I look around, to see other buildings, mostly shorter than the hospital, sitting across the street. The hospital was surrounded by roads so the buildings to the side were still across the street, in technical terms.

My Healer places his hand again on my shoulder and nudges me toward a shuttle bus. It is completely empty. As the doors hiss and open, the driver smiles at me, with a kind smile. I quickly sit in a black seat near one of the wide windows, and the Healer sat next to me. The bus made a hiss sound and it jerks forward onto the street. It slides in between cars smoothly, as it takes me towards my new home. My stomach is still doing its strange twisting and untwisting from nerves. After a few minutes, we turn into the parking lot of this two story building, that is painted white, with green on it. It must be where I will live, because the driver stops at the entrance and the doors open with that strange hiss. The Healer gets up, and I follow him off, more nervous than I was before.

We walk inside, the doors sliding open for us, opening up a room that is warm, with blue carpet, dark, wooden walls, and a reception desk. My mind identifies it as a hotel right off. The receptionist is talking on the phone and his eyes flicker to me, which isn't surprising considering I'm still in a hospital gown.

"We've converted this hotel into apartments, for those who feel more comfortable living with others. They've built kitchens into the rooms, but they do provide breakfast." The Healer tells me as we approach the reception desk. The receptionist hangs the phone up and I quickly look him over. Due to my short stature, everyone is going to be taller than me, but he is not as tall as my Healer. Luckily, the desk is high enough that my head and shoulders stand over it. The receptionist has black hair, slicked back nicely, a square jaw, green eyes, pointed nose, and thin lips, which are fixed in a smile currently.

The receptionist holds his hand out to me. "You must be the new resident, Moonbeam. I am Storm. My real name is much longer but you can just call me Storm."

I take his hand, his buries my small one. "Thank you sir." I smile, as a polite response.

He releases my hand and digs through a drawer, and hands me a plastic card. "Here is the key to your room. Angel is expecting you."

My roommate goes by Angel? I didn't think my species received names like that. I nod my thanks and my Healer takes me down a long hallway, past some glass that shoes older and younger people in a large swimming pool, although not many, and to a room at the very end of the hall. He takes my card, slides it into the card slit above the door handle, and there's a click sound and the light blinks green. He takes the handle and turns it and the door swings open inward. It reveals a room that has light green walls, dark blue carpet, two large beds that are blue, with a desk and lamps on that desk between them. There is a large dresser against the wall, with a flat screen TV perched on top and it is playing a random show. There's also a window, but the curtains are pulled closed. The room is clean, except for the one bed is all messed up and there is a dark haired girl lying there. She has long dark hair, dark eyes, thick lips, round face.

She looks up at me. "Hello there. I'm Angel."


	2. Chapter 2

I stare for a minute. It makes me wonder what her full name is. It isn't obviously going to be just Angel. That's now how we are.

"I'm Moonbeam." I finally say, with a slow smile.

"I see." She smiles, her eyes flitting up and down my hospital gown. It's a little embarrassing.

"She's brand new, Angel, so I expect you to explain things to her that she wasn't already informed of before she was shipped her." My Healer says to her.

Angel looks at my Healer. "I know that. I've done this before."

I look at my Healer in shock. I never knew I was being put with someone who is used to helping get new souls assimilated into our new society. I had been told that my roommate would probably be a newbie. That's when I think about it again. They said probably. I take another step into the room, curling my toes into the plush carpet. I have never felt this kind of thing under my feet before and it feels nice, much nicer than the tile.

"Moonbeam, I must be leaving. I'm due to help with another Insertion today, so I hope Angel will be very helpful." The Healer says.

I look at his smiling face and smile back. "Thank you."

He nods once, and backs out of the room, closing the door softly. It clicks.

I turned back and Angel is on her feet, her green eyes, with the silver tint, wide with excitement. She looks me up and down again and then frowns, although the excitement doesn't wear out of her eyes. She goes to a door that I haven't noticed before, and opens it, rifles through shirts, tosses one at me, then some bottoms and what not. She gestures to her right, where there is a door gaping open, which I assume is the bathroom.

"Go ahead and change. Then we can talk what to do next." She says.

I step into the bathroom, pulling the door shut behind me. I flip up the light switch, which shows I'm standing in a bathroom with a wide marble counter, with two white sinks, and a large mirror above. I'm standing on cool white tile, and the walls are a pasty color, which looks gross, and there's a trash can tucked underneath the counter, along with green and blue towels stacked there. Also, there is something my mind immediately identifies as a hair dryer on the wall, the cord stuck into the wall, and it is also white. There is another door, but it is closed, which is probably where the toilet and shower are. I don't open that door, as I don't need to go in there at the moment.

I notice the clothes I'm holding as I'm putting my under things on. They are fairly tight jeans-skinny jeans something from my host's memory matches it-that are a dark dark blue, and then a black, long sleeved t-shirt. I quickly put everything on. Once I've done that, I walk out of the bathroom, flipping the light off, and sit on the bed that has everything still made. The bedding is soft to the touch and I let out a sigh without meaning to.

Angel laughed. "You're going to get used to everything. Touch, smell, the emotions."

"What's your full name?" I ask.

She suddenly rolls her eyes and smirks. "My Healer named me Angel of the Brightest Sun. It makes no sense I know. And it doesn't exactly roll of the tongue either. I just like Angel."

I smirk. "Yet I'm lucky enough to get a short name like Moonbeam."

Angel turns serious. "I think it's a beautiful name and it works for you."

I am genuienly surprised that someone I know for only five minutes would say that about me. I can feel tears building in my eyes from the emotion, and I put my fingers on the corners. They are wet. I frown and wipe my eyes with my sleeve, this is a little odd that I'm crying. Angel places a gentle hand on my shoulder.

"You'll get used to it. The emotions are like a rollercoaster for a while." She says.

I nod and then stretch; oh how _good_ stretching feels. Angel snorts but then stands and goes back to the closet and tosses shoes at me, along with socks. I catch the shoes, which are a rougher fabric and don't feel as pleasant on my hands. I turn the shoes over in my hand. High tops, to be exactly, with a round white spot near the heal with a star that says Converse. The shoes are jet black, and look brand new. I pull the socks on, and then the shoes. Angel already has on ones similar, only they're a light blue.

I realize that the key card is in my hand, so I shove it into my pocket, not sure what else to do with it. Angel has one as well and she tucks it into her pocket, then grabs a thick black coat, tossing a blue one to me. I pull my arms through the sleeves and zip it up. She lets out a strange huff.

"Now you look normal and not like someone who broke out of the hospital." She looks relieved. "Most Healers provide clothes, but the one you have, he always seems to 'forget' to provide them when transporting them to a new living facility."

I don't have an emotional reaction to that for once. I'm glad, it doesn't help that I'm laughing or crying at everything she says to me. She opens the room door and I walk out and wait for her and she closes the door tightly, and we exit the building. As we walk to a bench with a sign that has a bus on it, I shiver. The cold bites against my skin, it is freezing, almost painful how cold it is. Angel is walking like it doesn't bother. We sit down on the bench and wait for a bus. I'm shivering, pulling my arms inside my coat, and holding them close to my body. I don't know how I'll ever learn to tolerate such cold temperatures. Angel is looking down the road, no expression on her face. The tips of her ears begin to turn red, and I wonder if that is from the cold. Then I feel the stinging in my own ears and I pull my hoods up. Why do humans have to have such sensitive skin to the temperatures?

Angel seems to not notice the cold, she is still watching for a bus. I put my arms back into my sleeves and then proceed to jam my hands into my coat pockets. Angel suddenly gets to her feet, pulling me up as well. A massive green and white bus slows to a stop, a puffing hiss sound and then the doors open. We climb on, and luckily there is almost nobody riding, and we sign an electronic thing so the driver can log how many people have ridden his bus. We sit in the front, and I get one of the windows, which are even larger than the shuttle windows. We're also elevated a little higher too. I watch the buildings as we pass by, and notice the people walking back and forth on the sidewalks, some of them look at me as the bus rumbles down the road. I notice that people are walking in and out of buildings, some in groups, some are partnered, the female is grasping onto the male's arm. This is a picture perfect example of how Earth is now. Harmonious, no more violence. Or that's what most of my kind are under the illusion. They must not realize that the humans are fighting back, and that I know of a pocket of resistance, where even one of my kind are fighting _against_ the souls. Us. That's what I've gotten out of my host's memories anyways.

The bus shudders to a stop, and it hisses as the doors swing open, and some people get off the bus and two more get on, then the doors swing shut, and the bus hisses again as it continues down the road. Then I realize I have no idea where we are going.

"Where are we going anyways?" I ask Angel.

She shakes her head at me. "You will see."

I go back to looking out the window, where there are people walking along the sidewalks, and nothing seems amiss. Nothing.

Until I spot someone staring at me that have regular eyes. No silver. Which means no soul.

And I know who that is. It is one of my host's relatives that appear to be visiting from Arizona. Then I suddenly make the connection. She may be part of the resistance. I watch her as she continues to watch me as the light changes, as it had turned red, and we continue on our way. She starts to follow, but then stops and ducks her head and ducks into a building. I know why now. The cars sporting the lights on top that they typically don't use. Seekers. What is a free human, a relative of my host of all people, doing in the middle of a city completely colonized now by the souls? I don't understand the reasoning.

I about say something to Angel, when the bus jerks to a stop, the brakes protesting loudly against it. Angel grabs my arm and I turn to look at her. Fear.

"We have to get off. The Seekers are nearly here, and they will protect us from this. But we'll die if we stay on the bus." There's panic clear in her voice.

"What are you talking about?" I say, looking at her.

She turns my head, towards the road we were just preparing to turn on. "Look."

In the middle of the road, cars are stopped and people are pouring out of them and there is a large black van. There are at least ten _wild_ humans standing there with guns, and some of them are coming towards our bus, looking like they've been living in a cave. I stare, in fear, for they have already shot several souls down. But Seeker's come squealing around the corner and pour out of their cars, but the wild humans shoot them down too. Angel tugs on my arm, and we hurry off of the bus and start running away from the scene.

One of the wild humans pursue us. I can't keep up with Angel's pace; I'm much shorter and my legs aren't meant for running for long periods of time. Angel keeps shooting panicked glances back and then I feel a hand on the back of my neck, yanking me to a stop. I scream and thrash, but a hand thumps on my mouth and I get dragged into an alley way.

I get pinned to a wall and a light shines on my face and then the figure freezes and I see the figures face. Dark brown eyes, shaggy brown hair, and a small nose. I almost haven't recognized him, because of the shaggy beard. But I know who it is. My host's uncle, the one she was closest too.

He releases my throat and I gasp and fall forward, on my hands and knees. I look up at him and see the horrified expression on his face.

"No…Teresa..that can't be….I can't stay here. You, go. Run with your friend before mine catch up." He disappears.

I bolt out of the alley way and run practically into Angel. She looks terrified. And surprised she grabs my wrist and we run until we can't run anymore. Then we duck into a café, where it appears a lot of others are hiding as well. We stay in there until we see a bus and go onto that and start back for our home. I'm shaking like a leaf, as my host's relatives keep popping up. I haven't even had time to adjust either. Angel's eyes are huge and fixed on me, and we're both terrified.

"That was my host's favorite uncle that caught me. I don't know why he didn't take me, or kill me on the spot. He just let me go." I am surprised that I can speak.

Angel's face was tear streaked. "I don't understand either. But that was terrifying. Wild humans coming in the middle of a city where they are hugely outnumbered!"

I shake my head; I understand humans even less than she does. But the fact that I've seen two faces I recognized sends chills down my spine. I can't help it.

Once we get back to our apartment, we rush inside and stay in our room, the door locked, the TV off and the curtains tied shut. Neither one of us speak; we're both too scared. Even when someone knocks on the door we both jump, and Angel goes to answer it. It's just Storm, and he looks concerned.

"What happened? You came in so fast and locked yourselves in I didn't have a chance to ask."

I don't have a voice so I let Angel explain, and I'm glad she is willing too. I pull my knees up to my chest, wrap my arms around them and just sit there, staring at the wall. The fear is so strong I nearly start crying. But I've got the emotions under control. At least, the urge to cry anyways. That's one of the easiest things to ignore.

"Just stay inside for a few days then you two." Storm looks at me. "I'm sorry about how your first day as a human had to go. I hope it doesn't continue to be like that."

I nod my thanks; I don't have it in me to speak yet. He leaves and Angel closes the door, looking about as stable as I feel right now. She turns to look at me and can't even manage a smile, we just stare at each other.

I'm still shivering and then I curl up into a ball and fall asleep.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3: A Rescue, or a Kidnapping? **A/N: I have to rush the living in the city part, mostly because I don't have much of an idea for it.** **Read and Review please :) my character descriptions of real characters of the host may be inaccurate but I'm trying my best to be as accurate as possible**

_It's hot outside. I'm crouched in a bush in the park, next to a high school. I've forgotten all the names of everything here. It doesn't matter. It's no longer my world. It's _theirs. _I keep an eye out for any signs of danger as the sun goes down. I've been trapped here all day long, and my leg muscles are cramping, and my stomach rumbles with hunger. Seekers chased me here, but luckily I'm more evasive than they can handle. But now I need to get back to our hang out. My uncle is waiting for me, we've been communicating back and forth with a resistance down in Arizona. They're planning to send a group up here for us, as there are no pockets of resistance up north, at least that's what we have assumed. But I cannot wander from my bush, as a black and white car, with lights on top, lazily drives by. The Seeker driving looks bored as he continues driving. There is very rarely any action in their job anymore. Soon they would assume they are no longer needed. That's when my species is likely to strike and strike hard. _

_ The car finally disappears. I jerk my hood onto my head, stand up, and begin walking up the sidewalk, slowly ascending a hill into a neighborhood. We've managed to live safely in the middle of a neighborhood crawling with the buggers. I don't know how we've been able to do it for so long. But soon, we wouldn't have to. I keep moving, trying not to look suspicious for wearing a hoodie on a hot day. I don't care, it doesn't matter to me. As long as I can keep moving, without any notice, I would be okay. I keep moving slowly, walking past white houses, with the occasional green or blue house. They all changed the structure of the houses, so they all look the same, but they were given different options for colors. Luckily not all of the buggers liked white._

_ Soon I reach a newer looking house that is two stories, except the second story is underground. The curtains are pulled tightly shut, and there are no cars in the driveway, or gaping open garage, although that doesn't mean much. I quickly go into the garage, punch the button with my fist, and watch the garage door slowly close with a groaning noise, which makes a finally thud when it touches the ground. I knock on the dilapidated, brown door three times to let my Uncle and cousin know that it's me. At first there's no response, then the door slowly swings inward with a groan and I step inside. The figure slams the door closed and quickly locks it, then slides a board into place. I tuck my hoodie back down, finally able to relax. I see my Uncle's gaze is on me, and I drop mine._

_ "I couldn't get any supplies. They chased me to a park and since I'm small, I could easily pull off hiding in a bush. I was stuck there all day." My stomach rumbles again._

_ My Uncle, Ryan, frowns, and I notice he's got facial hair coming in. "It's alright." He reaches out and ruffles my head. "I'm just glad you're safe."_

_ "Dad." I hear a younger, but deep, male voice call out. "Is Teresa back yet?"_

_ "I'm right here." I call out to him._

_ A boy about my height with brown hair and green eyes rushes into the kitchen. My seventeen year old cousin Travis._

_ "I'm sorry." I tell him, barely making eye contact with him. "I couldn't get any supplies."_

_ Travis suddenly grabs me in a tight hug. "As long as you're safe it doesn't matter. You're the only family we have left that hasn't been…claimed. We can't lose you."_

_ "You won't Travis." I bury my face into his chest, holding back sobs. "I don't want it to happen, so it won't."_

I suddenly wake up, hot tears running down my face. I sit up and look at the time. 2 am. I lie my head back down on the pillow, holding back sobs, although tears still ran freely down my face. My host, Teresa, had made a promise, that my species had forced her to break. I feel a twinge of pain in my heart. Her Uncle Ryan, if he has made it back safely, has to tell his son, Travis, that she has been claimed, and lost. I feel another twinge of pain and fresh tears roll down my face, and I'm sobbing silently. Then I roll over onto my face, and get lost in sleep once more.

_It's pouring outside. We hide out in the woods, watching the truck pull away from the campsite, leaving their camper behind, assuming that it's safe. The only reason we are out here, is we have stolen a car, and this is one of the safer ways to get food. Ryan is still in the car. Travis and I slowly begin approaching the camper, both of us still alert to our surroundings. We reach the camper, and test the clean metallic door. It's locked. We check for windows, but there are none. We have no way in. But Travis doesn't give up easily. He examines the lock, and then holds out his hand to me, and I pull a bobby pin out of my back pocket and place it in his hand. He twists it out of shape, then jabs it into the lock and wiggles it and we hear a promising click sound. I place a hand on the handle and twist it open, and hop inside, the lights automatically coming on. I don't care what the place looks like, I go to the cupboard, and paw around inside, grabbing Nutella, peanut butter, canned goods, and pretzels and marshmallows, then I go into the fridge and just grab a bunch of food and drinks. Travis dumps out one of the alien's bags and we stuff it full and quickly go outside._

_ We've headed to the rendezvous point but we did not see Ryan. Where is he? We duck into some bushes to wait for him, but he doesn't show up. The raining is letting up, revealing a setting sun. The buggers with the camper would be back soon. We have to get out of here before they get back. Then we see it. A muddy red ford truck comes barreling to a stop, and we quickly climb inside. _

_ I rest my head on Travis's shoulder, relieved that we have gotten out of a bad situation again. Uncle Ryan starts driving immediately, stomping on the gas, we start accelerating rapidly._

_ "What's going on? Why are you driving so fast?" I ask._

_ "Seekers. They've been sitting out here. The trailer right there-it was a trap." Ryan barks, his knuckles white from gripping the steering wheel so hard._

_ I tense up, and I can feel Travis tense up._

_ "They've never done that before. They're getting smarter."_

I wake up to shaking. I see Angel's face right in mine and she leans away, looking relieved. I'm a little annoyed, I never got to finish that memory. I sigh and rub my eyes, not sure what to say. But then my stomach growls, and twists painfully in hunger. I yawn rather loudly, and I notice that Angel isn't saying anything, just staring at me.

"What's the plan for today?" I ask.

"Stay here. That's what. After what happened yesterday it probably won't be safe to go outside for a while." She says.

"Alright. Can we get breakfast?" I ask.

She nods and we leave the room, walking in silence. Angel's face was serious, but there is fear in her eyes that matches all the others that we walk by. They all must know about what happened yesterday. We cross over into the café area, where there is a long bar with food and at the end drinks. We go through and I fill my plate and sit down at a table, and eat, not noticing what I'm eating, I'm still freaked out from those dreams, memories, that I had while I was sleeping. I am beginning to feel more pity for humans, as if I needed that.

Angel sits across from me, and eats silently too, her eyes unfocused as she eats. Then her hand freezes, holding the fork, her eyes refocus, and there is pure terror on her face. I turn around to look out the window, and see the same van again, and then Ryan, my host's uncle, pointing right at me. I stand up, leave my plate right where it is, and run for my room. I get to the room, wiggle the door handle, then pat my pockets and realize that I don't have a key, but Angel shows up not too long after me. She unlocks the door, and we go inside, lock the door, sliding the chain lock into place with a snap, we hide in the bathroom, the door locked, the light off. Angel and I have tucked ourselves under the counter, which isn't hard for me, but Angel is folded unnaturally and looks like she's in pain. I am shaking badly, and I whimper each time I hear a door bang open close to us and gun fire. I press my knuckles against my lips and close my eyes. Barely living in the human world, and I will already die. Or be taken, and probably ripped forcefully from my body, exposed as the harmless soul form, and squished and die anyway. I don't want that to happen, but it's likely. I hear our door bang open, loud voices chattering away at each other, and we make our way quietly into the shower tub and lie down, me completely lied out, Angel is curled into a ball.

"No sign of your cousin." A gruff voice says.

Cousin? That would mean Travis is with them. I shiver harder and press my fist against my lips again. I have to resist the impulse to call out to him, tell him that I'm here, even though his cousin has long been erased.

A long sigh. "I see. Dad said he saw her in here, but he must be finally going off of the deep end. Hallucinating. He got my hopes up." He sounds upset, and hopeless.

I feel a strange ache in my chest, which brings tears rushing to my eyes that he's so sad. I nearly jump out of the tub, but Angel gets a hard grip on my arm. We wait until the footsteps have retreated quickly out of the room, and down the hall way before we climb out of the tub. But the second we leave the bathroom, Angel quickly closes the door and locks it. My breathing has accelerated, and I have a hand placed on the base of my throat, in that hollow space of the collar bone, and I'm about ready to cry. Angel doesn't say anything, and she turns her head away, looking terrified.

We don't leave our room at all for days, not even for breakfast. We have it brought to our room and then we either read, or watch TV all day. My Healer calls a few times, asks about how well I'm adapting but there's no progress, considering there's no way Angel wants to leave, which means I'm not leaving. So we continue to stay holed up in our room.

Then, after about a week, on a Monday, we venture out onto the streets, in sheeting rain. We're dressed warmly, and waiting on a bench for a bus. We are planning to go shopping, but the bus is running late, due to bad traffic, and this rain. It makes it nearly impossible to see, even just walking. I have a baggy hoodie on, so the hoodie hides my face rather well. I don't want to have anybody recognize me right now, as that will be the death of me if that happens. But at the same time, I want to be found, because I am already sick of the pain I have managed to cause, and I've probably caused even more, without knowing it.

Finally, a city bus rumbles to a stop in front of us, and the doors open. We quickly climb on, grateful to finally be out of the rain. I let my hood drop as we sit in a seat at the very back of the bus, but I sit on the inside seat, so I don't have to look out the window. Angel doesn't ask me why I don't want the window, and I don't tell. She still doesn't know about the dreams/memories that have haunted me at night. The past few nights they have been the same ones.

The bus suddenly is jerked to a violent stop, a loud pop of a tire popping and then the door is forcefully opened and a gun fires and the bus driver slumps in his seat, blood trickling from the wound in his head. Even from the back of the bus, I can see all of that happening clearly. I yank my hood up over my head again, hiding my face I quickly crawl under the seats. I hear grumbling voices and I feel a hand on my ankle.

"Moonbeam where are you going?" Angel whispers, panicked.

"Hiding." I hiss. "I think they want me, so they won't hurt you."

She released my ankle so I crawl deeper under the seats, having to press my face down into the carpet that smells of rotten eggs and coffee beans. I also see old gum stuck to the under sides of the seats. It's disgusting and must've been left over from humans, as my species is very clean and doesn't stick stuff to other stuff if we don't have an immediate way to throw it out. I turn my head to the side and see a very muddy, worn down black boot.

"If anyone is hiding come out!" A voice barks. "We're looking for someone specific."

The Seeker's will be here soon, I keep telling myself that so I don't come out from underneath the seats. The boot moves forward and I hear Angel scream and the boot moves back and now I can see Angel's shoe. I bite my lip, as I nearly let out a scream.

How the heck these humans got around causing so much chaos without getting caught I didn't know how they managed. But they are pulling it off and now Angel is in danger as well. I start wiggling backwards, working on getting out from under the seat, but then I realize I'm stuck. Crap.

"If you are on this bus, _Teresa _ or whoever you are…you better show yourself or your friend is dead!" The voice threatens.

"I'm under here!" I shout. "But I'm stuck."

I keep wiggling then I feel a hand grab my ankle and drag me out from underneath the seat. Then I'm jerked to my feet and this man, I don't recognize him other than he's got blue eyes that are full of anger, and a hard scowl on his face, and he has a beanie on so I can't see his hair, and he is holding Angel by the back of the neck with a large hand and is doing the same to me. We get dragged off of the bus and towards a van. How they plan to get out of here, I have no idea.

"Hey, Jared." The man holding us calls out, to another man sitting by the van, which I just notice is hiding in an alley. The man by the van looks up, and I notice he has blonde hair, relatively, and hazel eyes, and he is scary to me, but then again, anyone taller than me and quite a bit muscular, is bound to scare me. "I found the one Ryan and Travis have been looking for all over."

The man, Jared, gets to his feet. "Good. Now we can get out of here, since we've caused such a ruckus. We're going to have to get a new vehicle, since they'll be looking for this one." He points his thumb over his shoulder at the van. Then he frowns at Angel. "Who is this?"

"Her friend, I assume. I think it'd be easier to transport her if she isn't alone." The man holding me by the neck says.

"Kyle…" Jared sighs and shakes his head. "Fine whatever. We were only supposed to make sure we had the one. Throw them in the back. Be _gentle_ please. Melanie is going to kill me if we keep roughing them up."

"I got it." He starts dragging us to the back of the van. I'm not resisting, because for the most part I'm too small to put up a fight. Angel was panicking, thrashing around and Kyle sighs angrily. He releases me and then glares.

"Don't move." He says.

He opens the back of the van, and shoves Angel in, being rough anyways, and then gently nudges me into the van. I climb in because I already know that I can't get away.

Then the doors slam shut.


	4. Chapter 4

We are silent as we hear them talking, but I can hear Angel whimpering in fear. She already knows what will become of us. I'm too scared to make any noises. I hear the rumble of the engine as the van starts up and we're jerked as it starts in reverse. I press my ears against the wall, separating us from the rest of the van. I want to know what's going on.

"This is probably a mistake." The one I identify as Jared says. "They're probably not still alive."

"You don't know that." Kyle snaps at him.

"Since when did you care? Since Jodi turned out to not be alive?" Jared growls.

They don't say anything, and I try to make sense of the conversation, but I can't. I just stay there, leaning against the walling, not sitting back in case they started talking again. I want to know what exactly the want with us. But maybe I don't want to know at the same time. I keep my ears pressed against the wall, waiting for them to say more. But they don't and the van suddenly stops, shudders, and turns left and starts moving forward.

"Do you think they will kill us?" Angel suddenly whispers to me.

I keep my ear pressed up against the wall; there's no point in trying to look at her as it is pitch black in this van. "I don't know."

Angel whimpers. "I'm scared."

"It's okay to be scared."

"I don't want to die. This is my first life."

"You chose to live here first?"

"Yes, they put me here and asked me where I wanted to go. They listed off all the available places and I chose to stay here. I shouldn't have."

I fall silent and realize we aren't whispering anymore. It doesn't matter; however, it's not likely to change their minds about us if they hear us. Their lack of conversation only makes me more suspicious.

"Well, there's not much that can be done about this situation can there?" I say then sigh. "I feel horrible though."

"Why?"

"That we've made them this desperate. I would have never chosen to come here if I knew just how dire their situation is."

"You pity them?" She sounds shocked.

"More like have sympathy for them. I want to help, especially since my host's uncle and cousin are among them. It'll never fix that I took her life away—indirectly but that's not the point—but maybe I can make things a little better." I realize how stupid I sound, realizing I can't change what's already been done. Our species has taken their world away from them. Stripped them of their belongings, and in some cases, their families. I can't do anything about _that_, but maybe I can help them. The desire to help overwhelms me and I have to choke back an emotional cry. I'm a little confused, as I don't see what helping them is going to do for me.

"You know that's crazy right? They'll just kill us. That's all humans do." She snaps at me.

"That's not true!" I snap back. "That's totally not true!"

"You're defending them?!"She sounds insulted and I scowl in the darkness.

"Yeah I guess I am."

We fall silent. I know that Angel is angry at me that I'm defending humans, considering the immense possibility that we'll die at the hands of these humans. I'm feeling a wave of anger at Angel, and sadness at this situation, for us and for the humans themselves. Tears well up in my eyes and spill over. I sigh internally; I still don't have a leash on these blasted emotions. I haven't had proper time to acclimate to them. Then I realize; my Healer would call to check up on me, not be able to contact me, freak out and call the Seekers. I wonder if that's happened yet. It's probably too soon.

I hear choked sounds coming from Angel and I realize she's crying brokenly, but trying to keep it to herself and barely succeeding. I can't reach out and comfort her; I can't see her. The humans remain silent, and I hear Kyle talking and another vehicle engine start and the van starts moving again. I hadn't noticed that it had stopped.

Kyle suddenly says. "Some of these Souls are strange."

"I know. That one reminds me of Wanda." Jared says in a low voice, barely loud enough for me to hear.

"She seems more sympathetic and less afraid though. When we first had Wanda, I doubt she'd defend us so easily like that one."

I pull my head away from the wall, scooting slightly away. For some reason, I do not want to hear anymore. I don't want to know if the conversation will lead to discussing our deaths, or where it will go. I sink against one of the side walls, leaning against a curving lump, which I can feel the vibration of the tire as it spins. I let my eyes slip closed…I'm exhausted…

_I feel someone gripping my arm, waking me from my sleep. It's Travis, and he looks half asleep. We're camping now, as we have been doing while making our way to a city. I notice the sun is slowly starting to rise._

_ "We have to get moving before the sun gets too high in the sky." He tells me with a yawn. "I don't see why my dad has to have us moving twenty-four/seven."_

_ I smile and sit up, pulling my legs out of my sleeping bag; I pull on a pair of pants over my sleeping shorts. "It's for safety reasons. I know he's a little paranoid, but I'm pretty sure paranoia is what's saved us all."_

_ I shouldn't have said that. The atmosphere in the tiny, cramped space of the tent, slowly turning brighter and yellow with the sun, becomes tense. Travis looks away from me and mutters something, then backs out of the tent. I realize the biggest mistake of saying that; it reminds him of his mom. I remember my family too, but it is harder for Travis because he was a lot closer to his mom than anyone in the world. And now he's lost her to the parasites._

_ I quickly roll up my sleeping bag, stuff it into its pack and pull it out of the tent and throw it in the bed of the truck, where all of our things now are except for the tent, which Travis and Uncle Ryan are pulling down, quickly and neatly since they are now experts at this. We've been camping in a desert for some time, and I can already feel the sand under my bare feet starting to warm up. I open one of the truck doors, and pull myself in, slamming the door shut, and then I pull my shoes on. Travis jumps in next to me a few minutes later, and Ryan slides into the driver's seat. He starts the truck up and starts driving. It's silent as we drive but I prefer the silence, and relaxed driving, over his crazy, speed demon driving whenever we felt like we were threatened._

_ This is much better._

I'm woken up by a bright light spilling into the back of the van. I realize the doors have just been open, and Kyle, I think, tosses a bag of something into the back. He stares at us for a minute.

"Do you need to use the bathroom?" He asks bluntly.

I nod, unsure of my voice and he helps me climb out. I realize that we're in the middle of the high way, stopped at a scenic view where there are some bathrooms, luckily. I quickly hurry into the restroom, grateful that I can finally relieve myself. I'm quick about it, and I hurry back out and Kyle gets me into the back of the van quickly, and I catch a quick glance of the dark car parked behind, before the doors are slammed closed, bathing us into darkness again. I crawl back over to my spot, and just lie there, unable to fall back asleep. The van jerks and starts moving again. I feel the vibration of the tire underneath me, but it can't rock me into sleep this time. Instead, I just curl into a tight ball, and wait for another stop. It will probably be a while, and Angel is not saying anything. Either she's angry with me, or she's sleeping. I don't know, I still can't see. I crawl over to the wall of the van that I can hear the others through, and press my ear to it.

"How do you think Jeb is going to react to this? He was only expecting us to bring back one." Jared growls.

"I wasn't sure if she'd come willingly, so I brought her friend along too. Is that a problem?" Kyle snaps back.

"It could be, if she manages to escape. She didn't want to go, couldn't you tell? She could compromise our lives." Jared sounds even angrier.

"I already took that into account. I doubt she'll be able to do that." Kyle sounds so sure of himself.

"You do know what this could mean for _all_ of us if this happens right? We'll all get implanted with those…things. And Wanda—she'll either get brainwashed or shipped to another planet. Do you want that?" Jared is yelling.

Kyle chuckles. "It's usually me getting angry. This is new."

"Don't change the subject."

"Calm yourself down. It's going to work out."

They both fall silent, and I scoot away from the wall. I don't understand what they're saying, but now I know that Angel is going to have to deal with this. If she's awake, then I'll have to tell her to be careful, I don't think she could hear that conversation, even with the yelling.

"Angel." I whisper. "Are you awake?"

There's silence for a few moments, but then she answers. "Yeah, why?"

"Whatever happens, you can't try to escape. You have to do what they say."

"Why are you saying this?"

"Because I listened to them talking." I'm keeping my voice in a whisper, so they can't hear. "You'll doom them all if you do that. And the soul that's been with them, you'll risk her too. I don't think it's a good idea."

"They're humans—all they do is kill our kind!" She spits at me, loudly this time.

"Enough of that already!" I shout, no longer caring if they hear us. "I'm sick of you saying that. I understand why you are so readily condemning them, but they deserve to live too! Don't you understand _that_?"

"I understand that you're _insane_ that you're willing to defend them, when they'll probably kill us!"

"Shut up about that! They're living creatures—like us. Do you really want them dead? To have them _murdered?_" I am losing hold of this unbearable temper. "I don't—I know that's strange of our kind, but I don't want them dead, even if they want us dead. I understand why they feel that way. We've stolen _everything they've ever had and loved_ from them. We've stolen their lives. We've stolen their _families_. I think we have to pay some sort of price—even if it means we die."

"You really believe that?" She sounds frightened and awestruck by my words.

"Yes, I do."

"I can see why you feel that way…but you aren't that well informed. How can you feel like this?"

"My host—she knew more than most hosts, I'm sure of it." I've finally got my temper under control. "She knew of this pocket of resistance, and they were trying to come here. Somehow, she didn't get there with her uncle and cousin. I have yet to see that memory. I'm still only getting little bits at a time."

"I see now. I'm sorry."

"It's alright."

We fall into silence. I don't have anything else to say, because I've run out of words, and I feel drained from that burst of anger, which I'm still unaccustomed to. And I realize that the humans probably think we're trying to trick them, but we didn't even mean to get so loud. I won't be shocked if whenever we stop again, the humans are angry at us, for our "lies". As if we need them to think that we're lying. We don't say anything more on the subject.

"I'm hungry." Angel whispers.

"Me too." I sigh. "I hope we can eat soon."

The van shudders to a stop and I hear one of the doors slam and footsteps crunching against the dirt, the doors fly open and I close my eyes against the bright light, and I hear the crackle of a bag and then the thump on the ground. I look at whoever has tossed it to us.

"Thank you." I whisper.

Jared nods, tosses a flashlight to me, then slams the doors closed and I listen to his footsteps back to the front of the van. I click the flash light on right as the van begins moving again. I shine it on the bag, which Angel quickly pulls open. There is a couple of wrapped sandwiches, and I take one. There's also a couple bottles of dark drinks labeled Powerade. And a couple of bags of chips. We break into the food, and eat and drink silently, the light on, bright enough to light both of our faces up. After we finish eating, we stuff our garbage into the bag, crumple it up, and toss it off to the side. Then we look at each other.

"I can't believe they're showing us kindness." Angel whispers, her eyes wide with surprise.

I shrug. "I can't either. But I'm grateful."

"I thought humans would always kill us, no exceptions."

"Where did you hear that?"

"From my Comforter when I asked her."

"Maybe she didn't know what to think." I shrug. "Clearly, they do make exceptions."

Angel's eyes suddenly feel with fear, and I know she still believes that we are going to die. I already know that I can't change her mind; she has no feelings about humans other than fear, unlike me. I am just a strange soul like that. If I was not like that, how would I have felt about being kidnapped? Would I have been like how Angel is now? A chill runs down my spine; I can't think of an answer. That's not something I should even be contemplating.

The road suddenly becomes extremely rough and then gets smooth. We ride in silence for a few hours, maybe more I can't tell. I've flicked the flashlight off, and the van keeps going, and then stops. It's an abrupt stop, and I don't know what's going on.

Suddenly the doors open, but I'm not blinded as it is dark outside. It's Jared again.

"You two can come sleep in the back seat. We're almost to our…place so we have no need to hide you back here." He says.

I don't move for a second, but then I do, but it's hard as my muscles cramp since I've been sitting down for a long time. Angel doesn't move after I drop out into the cold air, in the dirt. I look around. We're in some sort of desert, it's mostly flat, except for distant mountains.

"Where are we?"

Jared looks at me. "Arizona."

"How did we get here so fast?" I figure that I didn't have a good concept of time; but I didn't think I am that off.

"Um…you must have just slept well at one point? We didn't get here _that_ fast." He raises and eyebrow.

I sigh and then look at Angel. "Are you coming?"

She shakes her head, hard. "No, you go ahead though, I'd rather sleep back here."

Jared looks frustrated but then slams the doors closed. He opens one of the back doors of the van and I crawl in. Kyle is asleep in the driver's seat. Jared climbs into the passenger seat.

"Sorry about Angel." I whisper, lying out, curling into a ball. "She's not so comfortable with humans. I'm not either…but I'm more trusting than she is."

"Why is that?" I can feel his eyes on me, but I don't look at him.

"She just is like all other Souls." It feels weird, speaking of my own species as if I'm not one of them. In reality, am I really?

"Oh." He falls silent, not saying anything more.

I roll to face the seat, and push my face against the fabric. I can smell something among the lines of peppermint and licorice. It is an interesting smell, but it actually helps me drift off into sleep.


	5. Chapter 5

When I wake up, the van is bumping along and Kyle and Jared are talking in low voices. I don't make a sound, and I don't move, I don't want them to know that I'm awake. I keep my face pressed against the rough fabric of the seat. My muscles are cramping, and I feel stiff from lack of movement for hours. I have no idea if I'll be able to walk properly whenever we get to where ever we are going. I wonder how Angel is holding up alone in the back of the van. Guilt washes through me for so readily leaving her back there alone. But I guess it doesn't matter. I was willing to show that I can put some trust in the humans—Angel has nothing inside of her that is willing to do that. I guess I can understand that.

The van jerks to a sharp stop, and I nearly get thrown off the seat. I dig my fingers into the fabric, hearing a slight tear from how tightly I have gripped on, and Kyle cusses loudly. I hear the door open, and slam loudly, and I can hear him stomping. I have no idea what has happened, but I continue to face the back of the seat, refusing to let Jared know that I'm awake. It's stupid that I'm still doing this, but for some reason, I think they'll throw me back in the back if I am awake. There's a part of me that doesn't want to have to trade the comfort of the rough fabric seat, for a hard, uncomfortable floor of the back. I feel guilty again for leaving Angel alone in the back, but that was her choice in the first place, and I had known her mind wouldn't be changed.

The door suddenly creaks open, the van shifts as Kyle gets back in, and he slams the door. There's no speaking, and the van begins moving unsteadily once again. I still don't move, but the fact that I stretch my legs, and moan, they obviously must know that I'm awake by now, but thankfully they don't say anything. I just keep sitting where I am, until the van slows down, and then stops.

"Let them know we're here." Kyle grunts. "The last thing we need is to get shot at."

I hear the door open and then slam shut and the van turns back on but idles. I slowly sit up. Kyle doesn't seem to notice. From looking at the rearview mirror, his eyes are fixed ahead of him. I can't see out the side windows, they have been tinted so darkly they're black. But when I look closer I realize it's a sloppy painting job. I frown at that; they must have done that when they picked Angel and I up. It's a little saddening, but I understand the need. It's safer, but they knew I wouldn't try to escape. I think it's Angel that they're really worried about.

Kyle must have gotten the go ahead because the van shudders and starts going forward. I curl into a ball against the seat and begin to shiver in fear. I don't know how many humans will be there and that really scares me. If there's a lot…Angel is going to really freak out. I'm tempted to ask if we can go in blindfolded. That may make it better for Angel, but not so much for me. I don't really know how to ask—how to speak to _humans_.

Suddenly the van is bathed in total darkness and shudders to a stop. My heart begins pounding, and I'm shaking harder, and my hands are getting wet with sweat. In this moment, I don't want to get out of the van; I don't think I'll be able to be in a hive full of humans. I wonder what it's going to do to Angel. I realize that she's more than likely terrified. Especially since she probably has absolutely _no idea_ what is going on right now. At least I have a general idea. It has to be ultra-horrifying for her.

The door closest to me opens, and I sit up. Jared is watching me, a head light lit on his head. I squint, as it's blinding me little. I notice Kyle has gotten out and I hear the back doors open. I quickly climb out. Jared grabs my arm before I can get back there.

"We have to blindfold you." He says apologetically. "It'll make everybody else feel better. Not like we have any issue with you." He frowns.

"I just wanted to make sure Angel's okay." I say to him.

"Kyle." Jared barks. "Bring the other one over here."

Kyle comes to us, holding Angel by one arm he already has a red blindfold tied tightly over her eyes.

"Angel, are you alright?"

"Moon, is that you?" Angel says. She is so scared; she uses the shortened name she'd given me, which we had agreed sounded stupid. That's all out the window now.

I grab her other wrist gently. "I'm right here Angel and we're going to be alright."

She is shaking pretty hard. I squeeze her wrist reassuringly. "I have to let you go now so we can walk, but I'll be here."

She nods, and I drop her wrist and turn to Jared. He pulls purple fabric over my eyes and ties it tightly. I hold still and then I feel a warm hand clamp around my wrist and tug. I begin walking forward obediently. I hope that Angel is as cooperative. The only sounds are frightened whimpering from Angel, and the crunch of dirt under our feet. But as the ground slopes, the crunching turns to the echoing of feet on stone. I am silent, and several times Jared whispers at me to duck, which I do. And then as we get deeper and deeper into the ground, the air temperature drops rapidly, and it feels pretty good. But then I pick up on a few voices talking really loudly. I begin to shake, and it's not because of how cold it's gotten, although the temperature is getting a little warmer and there's suddenly light around the edges of my blindfold. As we cross into the room, some of the voices stop but then start talking again. We keep walking, passing into a dark passageway; I can tell because there's no longer any light around the edges of my blind fold.

After a while of walking, the blindfold is finally taken off and Jared pushes aside a greenish blue curtain, and gestures at me to go inside. I do and I notice the ceiling is low, but the room is wide, with two mats on the floor, relatively close to each other, and there's a stack of books in the corner and a pile of clothes in the other corner.

"You two will have to stay in here a while and…we'll have to get some clothes for your friend, but those should fit you…" Jared trails off.

"Thank you." I say.

Angel comes stumbling in and she clings to me, shivering like mad. Which is ironic, because I'm the smaller one; the one that looks more like a child.

"I'll get you some food. There's a lamp in the corner. Stay away from the door." Jared says. He waits for me to turn the lamp on before he drops the curtain and we go sit in a corner.

Angel hugs her knees to her chest, and is still freaking out. There's no color in her face, and her eyes are huge with fear. She looks at me.

"How can you remain so calm?"

I shrug. "I don't know." It's true. I don't understand how I'm remaining so calm. It's probably because I'm more trusting of the humans than she is.

She doesn't say anything else; she continues to sit there and shiver in fear. I don't say anything to her. I just wait for food to come back. Eventually the curtain opens, but it's not Jared holding the trays. As the figure approaches us, I realize it's my host's cousin, Travis. And he's gotten much taller.

"You've gotten tall." The words accidently slip my lips.

"Yes, I hit a growth spurt after I lost my cousin." He says, sitting down and handing a tray to me and then to Angel, without looking at her. She takes the tray, shaking badly. I just stare at mine, and then take a bite of the grainy bread.

He stares at me for a long minute and then speaks. "Is she still there?"

I know exactly what he means and I look down, while eating. "No. She signed off on life after her….accident trying to escape Seekers."

I look back up and I can see the disappointment in his face. I feel my heart drop into my stomach at that look. I want to tell him that she went quickly; except I'm not sure if that'll actually make him feel better, or if it'll just make him more upset. I look back down at my food, and pick up the large bottle of water, twist the cap open, and take a deep gulp from it, twist the lid back on and set it back down. Then I lift my eyes back up again to look at Travis.

"Did she…" He swallows and tries again. "Did she at least not suffer?"

I repress a shudder. She had lay in a pool of blood and suffered and she had been slowly bleeding to death. She really did suffer. But I'm not going to tell him that. "No, she went quickly."

The disappointment fades and there's actually relief. "Good. I'm glad she was able to pass on peacefully."

Then I suddenly say. "I never wanted to be the one to take her life. When I first got to this planet, I felt really bad, because we took everything that you guys ever had."

Travis frowns. "You knew what you were doing was wrong?"

I nod. "It's wrong on every planet we've taken. But they don't resist or they can't. The others are more welcoming because they don't have as much. But coming here, it makes me realize that whether it's taking a Spider host, or taking a human host, it's taking a life, whether we want to put it that way or not."

Travis stares at me for a long minute, and then strangely enough, he smiles. "I'm glad then that you took my cousin's body and not some other…um…one of you."

I stare at him stunned. I didn't think he'd feel this way at all. In fact, I would think he would hate me. Humans are strange creatures. I don't think I'll ever understand how they work. But then again, I haven't been on this planet long enough to make sense of them, even make sense of the strange, strong, _uncontrollable_ emotions. So how am I supposed to understand what humans will do? I can't.

He suddenly stands up and stretches. "I better get going. Nobody that matters know you're here and there's going to be some serious problems if they find me in here."

I just nod my understanding. He looks like he wants to say more, but then he just shoves his hands in his pockets, peeks out the door, then walks all the way out. I then look at Angel, and she is looking at me strangely.

"I thought…we were going to get killed." She whispers, too scared to talk above a whisper.

"We might. Apparently the _important people _don't know we're here." I whisper back, the fear beginning to leak through my veins.

Angel whimpers. "I don't want to die."

"I'm sure we won't." I say, frustrated with myself for saying that in the first place. She was already scared about death before we ever got here.

"You don't know that." Her voice is barely audible, and I can barely pick it up.

I sigh. "Can't you be a little more trusting? If they wanted us dead, they probably would have killed us by now."

"But you said it yourself—the ones that _matter_, whatever that means, don't know about us, and that could mean that they decide what happens to us. It could equal death."

"You could be a little more optimistic. At least we're still alive."

"For now. And we're stuck in this little hole for who knows how long."

I frown at her. "Can't you at least be grateful that they fed us?"

Angel looks at me; the terror in her face and eyes is still clearly there. "I don't know how to feel Moonbeam. What am I supposed to do? I am _terrified_ of humans. They're a brutal race. They always kill our kind.

I touch her shoulder gently. "That's not the case, Angel." I very nearly tell her about the one I had heard about. But for all I know it's just a story. So I keep quiet.

She shrugs my hand off. "You don't have proof of that."

"You're right—I don't." I shrug. "You just have to believe that maybe, _maybe_, they are actually a kind species."

Angel rolls her eyes. "Yeah, I was told that there was rarely any kindness among them. That it was better that we took over."

"Who told you that…?"

Her eyes suddenly drop. "My Comforter."

So she'd been in normal society long enough to get assigned a Comforter. And I didn't realize that they would tell lies like that. Even I know that's not true. But maybe that's part of their Calling. Telling Souls things that they _want_ to hear, even if it isn't the truth. I have no clue; I didn't get a Comforter; I was going to get assigned one the day after we were kidnapped. Then I wonder; how many days has it been? I don't know.

"They can't know that they were entirely cruel. They were probably saying that to make you feel good about us taking _everything _that they had, their lives and families, and just acting like _it's a good thing._"

Angel looks at me, a new light in her eyes; understanding. "Did we really just take it all?"

A sudden phrase pops into my mind. "It's like we decided to go around and _steal_ candy from _babies_. Except not as defenseless."

Angel flinches at the phrasing I used. That must have hit her hard. "Okay, I got it, so we are the bad ones here."

"I guess so. I mean, they were here first, and we just waltzed in like we already owned the place."

Angel nods. "I get it now. I can see why you've felt so bad for them. Why you're so willing to trust them."

"I just want them to know that I didn't want this for them." Then I add. "And if they kill me, then so be it. I did take my host's life after all. So it'd only be fair."

Her eyes went wide. "Are you serious?"

I nod. "It'd only be fair." I repeat.

Suddenly the curtain is shoved aside and Jared pokes his head in. "C'mon out."

Angel recoils at the sight of him,still afraid I assume, but I slowly rise. "Why?"

"It's time to talk to the others. See what they want to do with you."

Ice cold fear shoots through me. This is it. This is the time.

This is when we find out if we live or die.


	6. Chapter 6

**A/N: I couldn't remember how to describe Melanie and Wanderer/Wanda, so hopefully you guys remember what they look like.**

I stare at him for a minute before I step forward. Angel grabs my arm and I turn to look at her. She looks even more terrified than before, and she looks like she isn't going to move. I meet her eyes and subtly nod and she shakily rises to her feet. I turn back to Jared and slowly walk out. He waits for us both to come out, and then he drops the curtain and walks ahead of us. Low whimpers are coming from Angel and I know nothing I can say will make her feel better. Not now anyways. We follow Jared, and I'm practically dragging Angel, as she is slowing down. At some point she stops, and I have to really yank on her arm to get her to keep moving. She is now sweating, and shaking more violently, and I'm sorely tempted to ask Jared if they can just decide without us having to be there, but it would be worse if they decide our fate while we're stuck in a hole wondering.

But I'm wondering if that would be better for Angel. She is absolutely terrified, and obviously only willing to go because I'm with her. And then she freezes up again, and refuses to move when we're about to pass into a large room that's somehow lit. I tug on her arm but she will not budge. I stare at her and she shakes her head. This is really not going to make anything better.

"Angel, it's better to find out now, rather than waiting." I tell her.

"I can't stand in a room with humans that might want me dead. I can't do it." She whimpers.

"Yes you can." I say to her sternly. "You can, and you have to."

She finally begins walking again. Jared starts moving, not looking back at us so I can't see his reaction to Angel's near meltdown. But I don't think it matters. I don't want her to be alone at all right now, in case she decides to do something extremely stupid.

We pass through the open cavern, and I stare at my feet as we walk, not wanting to see the expressions of the people in the room; I can feel their eyes burning holes in my skin as we walk through. I don't want to look up to see hate and disgust on their faces. I'd rather just not know. Once we enter a dark tunnel again, I lift my head. I notice the pathway that slants upward; the way out. I don't want Angel to make an escape attempt and I grab her wrist. I look at her face and I notice her eyes are fixed on that path but I drag her along with me. We walk past it, then turn toward a darker tunnel and go down that way. I put Angel in front of me; she is less likely to make an escape attempt with me standing right behind her. She casts an angry glance at me but I just shrug and she turns away. I don't think she'd want to escape, only to end up dead because of the heat.

Jared suddenly stops at this lit up doorway, but it's fairly dim. He walks inside, leading us into a low ceilinged, but wide room. There aren't a whole lot of people, which lets me relax. But that doesn't mean we're going to survive this. I notice Ryan is arguing with an older looking man who has a snow white beard. Interesting, I have never seen a beard like that on a human before. It looks as if they're arguing, but it's hard to tell because of how quietly they are talking. I notice a girl that's my height standing next to someone who looks exactly like Kyle, only there's something about him that makes him different. I can't put a finger on it. But what I notice in the smaller person standing next to him is her eyes are different.

There's the pulsing silver in her eyes.

I very nearly gasp. Is this the soul Wanderer? I would have thought she would be in a taller host…didn't she live in a resistant host? Or was I misguided by what my host knew? I have no idea, but her eyes suddenly fix on me. I stare back before I let my eyes drift off to the side. I don't know if the whole manners thing applies here, but I know that it's rude to stare so much.

I notice there's a taller human standing next to her, staring at Jared, completely ignoring Angel and I. I decide to stare at my feet, not sure where else to look. I can hear them all talking, but I can't really make out the words, they are still talking way too quietly. I look up a little and notice Angel is very slowly trying to back out of the room. I roll my eyes, jog over to her, grab her arm, and drag her back. She gives me a long hard glare.

"I don't want to be here. Why did they have to drag me into this?" She whispers to me.

"They didn't know if I'd cooperate. That's why." I snap at her in a whisper. "Don't you dare say that they're going to kill us out of sheer hatred. They are better than that."

She rolls her eyes. "Sure they are."

I very nearly slap her. "Stop that."

"This isn't a very good situation for us." She jerks away from me, about to leave the room. But the guy next to Wanderer, I believe it's her, gives Angel a glare, and she flinches and moves to my side, where I get a hard grip on her wrist again. I'm going to make absolutely sure that she doesn't try to do that again. She gives me a look but I shake my head at her.

She huffs in frustration and stares down at her feet. I don't say anything to her, but I release her wrist, knowing that I can't keep showing how little I trust her to actually stay here. I cross my arms over my chest and stare off to the side, too uncomfortable to actually look at the humans. I just want this to be over, and I don't care for them to put it off. But who knows what they are going to do? Humans are unpredictable, and even more so when you realize that one of your own species is living among them, as if they were human.

I keep staring off to the side, at a wall, tuning out most of what the humans are saying, and listening to the sounds of gurgling water, coming from somewhere relatively nearby. I could hear a sniffle come from Angel and I turn my head to look at her. Her eyes are dilated, and she's staring directly at the humans, her face totally white, her face gleaming with sweat, and she's shaking badly. I touch her shoulder, and she flinches and looks at me, fear gleaming in her eyes. It's easy to tell that she is afraid of the humans, and scared of dying. I don't know how to change that for her. I'm an anomaly, sympathetic of humans, rather than standing and having a typical reaction, like Angel is.

I turn my head and see the small one, the one I suspect to be Wanderer staring at me. Her eyes glistened silver, which confirms it for me. I stare back, more comfortable, knowing that she's the same as me. But that doesn't mean that I won't still die. Her eyes drifted away from me and I look at Angel. She's staring at Wanderer.

"Do you think maybe she'll get them to spare us?" She whispers low enough so only I hear her.

I shrug. "It's possible, but I have no idea."

Angel's face is suddenly hard to read and I turn away. I have nothing to say to her, and I'm feeling terribly uncomfortable again. I look at Wanderer to find her staring at me again. I suddenly feel impolite and I look away, staring at the far wall. I have nothing else to do. But then I turn my eyes back and suddenly she's standing right in front of me. I blink.

"What's your name?" She asks me in a soft voice.

"Moonbeam." My voice is no higher than a whisper as I am well aware of the human eyes focused on me and Wanderer.

"Can you tell me if there's another…person inside you. Like a voice you can talk to?" She asks me, still gentle.

I frown. "No, I have no idea what you're talking about."

"Like, is the host resistant."

"No."

She blinks and nods once and then looks at Angel. "What's your name?"

"Angel." She says in a fearful voice.

"Resistant host?" She asks.

Angel shakes her head.

Wanderer blinks and sighs. "Okay, I see."

She steps back towards the humans, and I feel an impulse to run. But I already know I wouldn't be able to find my way out, even if I tried. I manage to resist the urge, while I just look at the humans. After a few minutes, Wanderer turns to look at me and then approaches us. I relax although I shouldn't; she may be my species but she is a big part of _them_.

"We can let you stay here. But only if you _swear_ not to try to escape. They will kill you if you do." She says to me.

I just nod. I want to live. "I won't." Not like I can find my way out anyways.

She looks at Angel, and I feel a pang of fear. What if she doesn't want to? Her stubbornness could cost her her life. I just watch her swallow hard before she answers.

"I won't try to escape." It comes out as barely audible.

"Good." Wanderer says, and then sighs and turns. "Jeb, where do you want them?"

The man with the white beard looks up. "Where they were before." Then back to talking to Ryan.

Jared suddenly steps forward. "I can take them." A girl much taller than me is standing with him. I hadn't noticed her before.

"Okay." Wanderer backs away, watching me.

I turn my eyes away and follow Jared and the girl out of the room. I look over my shoulder to confirm Angel is following. But she is trailing behind, and is starting to slow down. I grab her arm and drag her forward, to keep her caught up. She looks afraid, as if we're still facing life or death. I can't say any comforting words; I am still feeling like that a little. I can feel her shaking, but I keep a grip and keep walking forward, keeping my eyes fixed straight ahead on Jared, refusing to look anywhere else.

After we're in our room, Angel curls up on a mat, shivering violently. I sit down on the other mat, resting my head in my hands, not sure what to do now. There isn't much of anything to do really now, except sleep.

"Do you really think we're safe now?" Angel suddenly asks me.

"I don't know." I sigh. "I hope so."

"That girl-she's one of us."

"Yes, but she seems to belong with them. She seems at ease with the humans."

"How is that even possible?" Angel sounds shocked.

"I don't know. But it is. Maybe we'll feel that way someday…"

"I doubt it." Now she sounds disgusted. "I can't feel anything for them except to think they're monsters."

"I fear them; but feel sympathy. I think my feelings will get better." I huff. "And you should give them a chance. They aren't the cold-blooded killers you imagine all the time."

"If we try to escape they'll kill us."

"I don't want to try to escape! We have no idea how to get out and we'd have nowhere to go. Why don't you get that?"

"We're stuck in a hive of humans!" She looks at me, seething. "They could kill us if they really felt like it."

"You need to give them the benefit of the doubt!" I snap at her. "You are so close-minded."

"They kill our kind!"

"That's obviously not true."

"She's just an exception."

I snort. "You really don't want to think any other way. It's not that you can't-you _won't_."

She seems to be getting angrier. "They haven't given me a reason to!"

"They are sparing our lives! You should be grateful for that."

"They're keeping us prisoner."

"No! We voluntarily decided to keep ourselves here."

"We didn't have another choice. The other choice is get left into a desert to die."

"You don't get it do you."

"I don't understand."

I roll my eyes; it's too dark for her to catch it. "You're too hard-headed for me to get through to you."

She huffs. "Whatever. I'm going to bed."

She lapses into silence and I lie down, and face my back to her. I let my eyes drift close.


	7. Chapter 7

When I wake up, Angel is curled up into a tight ball, and from what I can tell, she's shivering. I can tell that she's having some sort of nightmare even though it's hard to see in this room with almost no light. I'm sorely tempted to wake her up, but I stop myself, seeing as that would probably only make things worse. So I let her sleep, wondering if someone is going to come wake us up or if we're supposed to get up on our own. Since I don't know, I just lie there, and stare at what little light is coming in through our doorway. I continue to watch for anybody to come open the door and tell us to get up. However, after a while of waiting, no one has come yet. Which makes me wonder if anybody is going to come get us, or if they forgot we were here. Are humans really so forgetful? I have no idea.

Suddenly a head pops in, and my eyes have to refocus so I can't see their face.

"You two up?" It's Jared.

"I am." I say. I look at Angel. "She isn't yet though."

"Do you think you could wake her up?" He sounds unsure.

"I don't know." I'm hesitant.

"Why not?"

I don't answer him, as I crawl over to Angel. I put my hand on her shoulder and shake her gently, hoping that she doesn't freak out when she wakes up. She slowly turns her head and blinks sleepily at me.

"What?" She asks me with a yawn.

"It's time to get up." I say gently.

"Can't I just sleep all day?"

I snort. "Not here, no."

She groans and sits up, rubbing her eyes. "I really hate not getting enough sleep."

"Don't be a baby." I say to her, rolling my eyes.

I notice her hair is a wild mess and I have to repress laughter. She seems to realize her hair is messy; she's attempting to flatten it down with just her hands and the attempt is failing. I lick my hands and attempt to flatten my hair, which seems to work for me, not for Angel. I snort at her. She just shoots me an annoyed look and I just shrug. It's not my fault that we have to be up; we just have to.

I look back at Jared. "Can't we just stay in here?"

My hopes are dashed by his answer. "Nope."

"Why not?" Angel asks him.

He sighs. "You'll never get used to being in this place if you just hide in here all day."

"Get…used…to?" Angel is so horribly confused.

"It's not like we can put you back where you came from." He says with a serious expression on his face. "So, you'll come work. Don't worry about it, we're having you work with Wanda and Melanie."

"Work?" There's disbelief in Angel's tone.

Jared snorts. "Yeah, you actually have to work."

I nearly laugh at the look on Angel's face. She looks almost insulted, as if working would be too much to ask. If anything, us working makes us less of a burden. So the fact that she's thinking this a punishment makes me want to fall over and laugh my head off.

Angel looks at me. "We really have to work."

I pat her. "Don't worry-it won't kill you."

She scowls at me. "Don't be mean."

I shrug and stand up. "I'm just speaking the truth."

She glares at me and gets to her feet. "Just shut up."

I shrug and walk out of the room. I don't look back to see if she follows, but Jared waits for her.

"You have to come to." He says to her. "If you don't come out I'll just drag you." He keeps his tone carefully controlled, so as not to scare Angel.

There's no answer from the room but she does come out, slowly, and she gives Jared a glare, but it's weak and easy to see through so he doesn't seem fazed by it at all and he walks ahead of us without a word, and I follow. I check over my shoulder to see if Angel is following, and she is trailing behind, sullen with her arms crossed. She is really upset about the current situation, it's easy to say. I gesture at her to join me, but she scowls at me and shakes her head, and continues sulking. I shrug and turn back, noticing that Jared is quickly getting out of sight. I jogged to keep up, relieved to hear Angel picking up the pace behind me.

Jared casts a glance back at us as he's walking, realizes he's walking too fast and waits for us to get caught up. By then I'm out of breath, panting. He sighs and continues walking, his shoulders stiff set all of a sudden. As we walk through the main hall, both Angel and I duck our heads until we are through another corridor, I let out a breath, not realizing I had been holding my breath. Jared seems to relax as well, as if he hadn't wanted to take us through there. After a while, we come upon another bigger cave thing and I realize that this is the area they make bread. I can spot Wanderer and the girl that must be Melanie kneading bread. I nearly sigh in relief that it's just them. I actually hear Angel sigh.

Jared snorts, rather loudly, and the two girls look up from kneading and, for some strange reason, I look down and away. I am feeling embarrassed, although I'm not entirely sure why. I remain totally silent.

"Why isn't anyone else here?" Jared asks.

A younger sounding voice answers. "They knew these two were coming so they figured four would be enough."

"I could help if you want." Jared offers.

"No, we'll do alright." The other voice says.

I look up, and notice Wanderer is staring right at me. I don't drop my eyes this time, but I have the urge to, which is difficult to resist. I must seem unsure to do, because Jared suddenly nudges me forward, and I take a few hesitant steps forward, then I stop.

"Hello." I manage to say.

"Hello." Wanderer says with a warm smile.

"You're the one who's known as Wanderer right? I've heard about you before." I say quietly.

"I go by Wanda, and I'm not really surprised." She replies, although she casts a strange glance at Melanie then looks back at me.

"What are we supposed to be doing?" I'm still speaking pretty quietly.

Wanda looks at her arms, her arms are literally up to her elbows in dough. "If you come to the other side of me, where there's that dough, I can tell you. I can't really show you."

I silently move to the other side of her, and watch her work the dough with her arms, which I didn't understand how she could with her arms buried in it like it is. She notices me watching and smiles and tilts her head at the dough in front of me. I hesitently stick my hands in the cool, sticky stuff, but I begin kneading, watching her movements, despite being in such thick dough. I have the hang of it soon enough, and when Angel joins as Jared leaves, she catches on pretty quickly as well. We knead in silence for a while, it's not awkward at least.

Wanda eventually speaks up. "Are you being treated okay?"

I keep my eyes fixed on the dough. "Yes."

"Jared's gotten softer." Melanie pipes in with a laugh.

"I would definitely agree with that." Wanda laughs.

I am confused but I don't ask for either one of them to elaborate. I don't want to know how he treated souls in the past. Angel is dead silent, her neck stiff with tension, her eyes fixed on the dough. I let my gaze wander back to the dough.

"You alright being here?" Wanda asks.

I shrug. "Sure."

Angel seems to about stop working, but then keeps going, almost at a frantic pace. That question set her off, as if she wants to bolt out of the room, right now. I can't reach out to comfort her; my hands are totally buried in the dough. I can feel tension radiating from her in thick waves now though.

Wanda seems to notice that, and changes the subject. "I've been thinking…I may have known you from somewhere."

I shrug. "I don't know. Where do you think we have met?"

"I can't place my finger on it. Were you ever a Spider?"

"No, I avoided going there. I heard terrible things about it."

"Huh. How about a Bat."

Warmth suddenly floods through me. "I loved it there. I nearly settled. That was my second life though, and then I heard about the Seeweed one and tried it.."

"I think I knew you on Song World then."

We begin chatting away about that planet. The minute she names a certain melody that she liked from it, I tell her it's one I composed and I feel like in a way that this allows us to bond. It's a little hard for me to swallow that I was on Song World the same time Wanderer was. Angel is still letting tension off, but a little less so, and I can hear her beginning to talk to Melanie a little bit while Wanda and I talk about Song World some more.

Jared comes back after a while to check on us. Wanda and I are still chattering noisily until he comes in and I suddenly stop speaking.

"No need to go silent on my account." He says to me. Angel and Melanie are still talking.

Wanda looks at Jared. "Moonbeam and I knew each other before earth."

Jared raises and eyebrow and looks at me. "Really?"

I nod. "Song World."

Jared looks a little surprised. "I never thought that would happen."

Wanda shrugs. "A strange universe this is."

"Agreed." I say.

"Well, there's some treats over in the dining hall if you want some."

We are cleaning our arms now and prepping the bread for baking. I don't want to leave this room. But food sounds good right now.

"What is it?" Melanie asks.

"Chocolate bars and energy drinks. There was a lot from the last raid."

"That sounds nice. We need to stay here and take care of the bread, could you bring us some?" Wanda asks.

Jared nods and leaves back down the corridor he came from. I am relieved. I'm not comfortable eating in the dining hall and either Wanda knows that, or the bread really is a priority and this just happens to be excellent timing. I have no clue.

Wanda looks at me. "You don't want to go out there do you? I know that feeling really well."

I shrug. "I'm not comfortable yet."

Wanda nods. "I get that."

I focus on the bread again, although there's really no point since we're not kneading it anymore. I just want somewhere to put my eyes, so I put them on the baking bread. Although it's really hard to watch since they aren't doing anything at the moment. Regardless of that, I keep my eyes on the baking bread, while I can hear Melanie and Angel speaking. I never thought that those two would get along so well, considering how Angel is. I guess she could warm up easily, it just takes some coaxing to get her out of her shell.

I feel awkward talking to humans, so I've been trying to avoid it. I do talk to Wanda because she's one of us, even though she's nearly as human as everyone else. But she's the one I feel closest to right now, since she is a soul. Being stuck here though makes me realize that I've been forced to settle on earth and even though I haven't lived many lives…this is where I will die. I'm not entirely sure how I feel about that yet.

I can still feel Wanda's eyes on my face so I look at her.

"Are you sure you're okay being here?" She asks, her brow creased with worry.

I shrug. "I'm sure I'll get used to it eventually."

Before she can say anything, there's a lot of noise and Jared comes in with our treats, but he looks a little agitated as he brings us our treats. I break into the chocolate bar immedietly, enjoying the taste.

"What's wrong Jared?" Melanie asks.

"They brought in another soul. Male this time. They think he might know how to save humans that are even unresistant."

My heart seemed to stop.


	8. Chapter 8

I must have looked shocked because Jared looks at me confusedly. My heart is pounding and my hands clench into fists. They were probably looking for a way to do this to us all along. I have no idea how I didn't see it! Angel and I are going to die now. I let out a hiss without thinking about it.

"Are you okay?" Jared asks me.

"Were you planning to do this the entire time? Is this why we were brought here." I snap at him, and listen to Angel hiss.

"No!" Wanda answers before Jared can, looking shocked. "I wouldn't let them do that to you."

I feel a strange pang of pleasure when she said _them._ She doesn't lump herself in with the rest of them. I don't see why that makes me feel so good, she's been with them for I don't even know how long.

"Are you positive of that?" I hear Angel ask venomously.

"Of course. I'd never let them hurt one of my own." Wanda answers defensively, tensed up now.

I can relax. "Sorry."

Jared snorts. "I figured we'd get this kind of reaction. Don't worry about it."

I'm feeling awkward again so I take a giant gulp of my energy drink, shame suddenly bursting through my system. I did what Angel always does, and I have assumed that the humans are cold blooded killers. I shake the feeling off, annoyed with myself.

Jared looks at Melanie. "Do you want to be there when they attempt the procedure?"

Wanda gets flustered. "They're going to attempt it on the new soul?"

Jared looks at Wanda and blinks. "Is that bad?"

Wanda glares at him. "Of course it is! Why can't you just get the information and try it on someone else! Not on the one who may have the information." Wanda stomps out of the room.

I look at Jared, then hurry after Wanda. She glances over her shoulder at me, but doesn't stop walking. There is a stiff, angry set to her shoulders as she walks and when we come to the main dining hall thing, I stop in the corridor entrance. Wanda just gently grabs my arm.

"You'd have to come out eventually." She says and pulls me out.

There is a crowd of people, but when they see us, they fall silent and shuffle off to the sides, their faces flushed with embarrassment. Wanda suddenly hisses under her breath and hurries forward, releasing my arm. I stay with her to see what's going on.

There's a young male sitting on the ground, looking dazed. His eyes have the silver in them, although I am already expecting to see that, but the joy shoots through me anyways. I feel my face begin to heat up and I stare at the ground, away from the disoriented soul sitting on the ground at Kyle's feet. Wanda hisses angrily and I turn back around to see why.

The poor frightened soul is covered in bruises and trembling. He has his arms wrapped around his knees and he keeps looking around, as if something is going to jump out and attack him. I notice Wanda is glaring at Kyle.

"Did you hurt him?" She snaps, pointing at the soul.

"He wouldn't come willingly when he said what he said. So I had to get a little rough." Kyle snaps back.

"That isn't a reason to _hurt_ him." She growls. "You use the pills to knock him out. Not beat him up. Look, he's _terrified_ because of you Kyle!"

Kyle recoils and holds up his hands defensively. "Hey, he attacked me too. You can't put the blame on me."

"That's because he was defending himself!"

Kyle rolls his eyes. "Whatever. You can take care of him. Doc wants to do the procedure that this thing told him about, but it's up to you and Jeb and Jared..and Ian, wherever he is." With that Kyle stalked off, his hands curled into angry fists.

Wanda kneels down in front of the frightened soul. "What's your name?"

"I go by Lance. That's my host's name. My actually name is really long and doesn't shorten well." He says in a whisper.

From what I can see of Lance, he's tall, a good build, but he doesn't have much compared to Kyle, and he's got tan skin like he's been in the sun a lot. His hair is jet black and short, with dark brown eyes, square jaw and a nose that's similar to most I see on humans. He's shaking badly, probably because he's always been terrified of humans, exactly how Angel is.

"Here, come with me. I know this is scary, but you have some explaining to do about the non-resistant humans thing." Wanda says.

"I don't know anything. I heard it from a guy and then I was telling my friends about it. Then I got jumped." Lance says fearfully.

"You didn't hear much?" Wanda asks as she helps him stand and we begin to leave the room.

"No, just enough that I told my friends and I was going to let the Seekers know but then…" He trails off with a shudder.

Wanda flinches at the word Seeker. "You can't leave here now. You'll get everyone here killed and Moonbeam and I will both be shipped to another world."

Lance looks at me but I look away from him. I don't want to be involved in this conversation. I drift a little behind, so Lance can't really look at me, and I keep my eyes fixed on Wanda's back.

"So I'm stuck here? What if I didn't plan to settle on earth?" He asks, sounding upset.

"There's nothing that can be done now. Kyle brought you here-that dumb brute- and you can't leave without endangering the rest of us." She says.

"But they're all _humans_." He hisses.

"Don't tell me you want to tell the Seekers?" Wanda snaps. "If you do I'll have no choice but to hand you over to Doc."

I shudder at the sound of that. She makes it sound extremely unpleasant. But, judging by the tone of her voice, that's probably how she's trying to convince him it's better to stay in the caves.

"I can't stay in a hive of humans."

"You don't have a choice. Anyways I doubt you could find your way out if Kyle blindfolded you."

"He did."

"Oh, good. He did one thing right." The tension in the air dissipates.

Lance lapses into silence, but I can tell he's unhappy by the stiff set of his shoulders, his hands clenched into fists. I wonder why he fought back. If Kyle had attacked Angel and I, we wouldn't have defended ourselves. It's not in our nature to turn to violence. So why did Lance? That's a little troubling.

I shake that off and keep walking, wondering how Angel will react seeing _another_ soul here. I don't know. We make it to the other room, where Melanie and Angel are still monitoring the bread and Jared's leaning on the counter chatting away at them. I continue trailing behind silently, not sure what to say. Then I see another person is with Jared. Clearly that is Ian.

Jared looks over at us and raises an eyebrow. "Why did you bring him here?"

Wanda looks tired. "Can you grab Jeb Ian?"

Ian nods. "Of course." He disappears down a hallway opposite from the one we came from.

"Apparently the information he has is very little, and it's probably just a stupid rumor some idiot decided to spread in the community." Wanda says to Jared.

His shoulders sag. "I figured that was the case."

"I don't want to put him through anything with Doc, but he doesn't want to stay here."

"I wanna go home." Lance suddenly grumbles.

Jared gets in Lance's face. "I'm sorry that idiot brought you here for something that you don't know could be real. But now you can't leave. You'll expose us all if you do. I wish I could change that, and I can't. That's just how things are around here. _Deal with it._" He returns to the counter, and leans on it again. He looks annoyed and starts talking to Melanie again.

Lance turns on Wanda. "How long have you been here?"

"A long time now, and I have no desire to leave. Trust me, you will adjust to living here." Wanda tells him, trying to remain calm.

"But it's an underground hidey hole! How am I supposed to get used to this? Especially living with _them!"_ Lance jabs his finger in Jared's direction.

"You need to calm down. We'll have to lock you up if you don't." Wanda's voice is flat.

I notice that Angel is completely ignoring the situation, staying in a conversation with Melanie and Jared. That's probably best at this point. I'm beginning to wonder if I need to be in this one that appears to be turning into some kind of argument. I quickly move away from the argument, and move to stand by Jared.

He looks at me. "Couldn't handle anymore?"

I shake my head. "All this arguing is weird. I've never seen this happen between two of my kind."

Jared snorts. "Wanda has been here long enough that she's human in that sense. And I don't know the deal with that…annoying twit."

I shrug. "Probably scared."

I realize my awkwardness around humans is already beginning to go away. I'm glad; feeling that way only makes things worse when we've already got that nasty, angry, frightened soul here.

"Maybe. But he seems eager to escape. Like he'd turn us all in." Jared sighs, crossing his arms.

"I'm pretty sure you'd be the same way too, if you were the one who got jumped by Kyle." Melanie states.

Jared laughs. "Yeah, you've got a point. But what about the turning us in thing?"

"It's probably the only thing he knows to do." I say. "But he doesn't understand the settling thing. This may be his first life, so being forced to settle won't sit well with him. That may explain his…aggression."

"Which life is this for you?" Jared asks, changing the subject.

"My fourth. I nearly settled on Song World. But I hated being blind." I sigh. "I just miss the wonderful…melody of it all."

"So you're even younger than Wanda is." Jared says and then looks at Angel. "What about you?"

She is quiet when she answers. "This is my first."

I look at her surprised. "This is your first? And you chose earth first?"

She nods. "I've been here for about ten years now. I was going to go to Song World next but…" She shrugs.

Jared looks stunned and struck speechless. We make eye contact and his expression of surprise reflects mine. This is news to me. I never thought someone would want to be on earth for their first life, at all. I had been offered that but I'd shuddered away from the thought and went elsewhere instead. Angel is a brave soul for willing to endure these unbearable emotions for the first life.

I notice Wanda and Lance have suddenly gone quiet. Then I realize Ian has come back with Jeb, and Jeb looks frustrated, so he must know what's going on…ish. Who knows. Jeb continues over to the others, but Ian joins us, and it's clear on his face that he doesn't want to be involved in the other conversation.

"So you came from Song World?" Jared says, breaking the tense silence.

I nod. "Yeah, and like I said, I was very close to settling. When I was preparing to, I was informed of earth, and it changed my decision." I catch the regret in my tone.

"Do you wish you could go back?" He says slowly.

"Maybe. I would miss the sight though." I laugh.

"Makes sense. I wouldn't want to go blind after having sight." Ian says.

I nod, then sigh and look over at Wanda and Lance. Lance looks absolutely terrified by the sight of Jeb, and his entire body is tensed like he's going to run. Wanda has a hand on his elbow, he's too tall for her to reach his shoulder, and is watching his face. I can tell from where we are he's quaking like a leaf.

Then he suddenly makes eye contact with me and mouths _Help me_.


	9. Chapter 9

I don't know why he wants help. I can't help him escape if that's what he's asking me for. So I slightly shake my head at him and turn around so my back is to him. I never thought of turning my back on my own kind, but this is a situation where I can't do anything to help.

Jared frowns. "Does he really want to turn everyone in?"

I shrug. "I think so. But I don't see why he should. It's not like you're going to murder my entire race."

Jared huffs. "If they'd understand that, we could actually live in harmony with your kind."

"Yeah, but that will _never_ happen." Angel says bitterly. "As you can tell by how I reacted and how he's reacting."

"Someday maybe." Melanie says.

"Someday, but not in the near future." I sigh. "That's how it is."

"What I don't get is why they didn't give us a chance." Ian says. "They didn't need to take all of us out."

"It's because of your destructive nature. Or at least most of your kind anyway. They didn't see the point in letting some of you live." Angel says with a sigh.

"Yet, your species calls us cruel?" Jared raises an eyebrow. "Do you really think your kind has the right to decide if another species gets to live, or if you take us all out?"

"We didn't have the right." I say. "But I can't control what goes on. I'm not the one who decided to start living on hosts on other planets other than the Origin."

"So everyone just sticks to the status quo? There isn't any spark for a rebellion." Jared shoots.

"No, because that's not in our nature. We are very peaceful at our core." I am trying to not lose my temper with him; I know he's not trying to make me upset.

Jared finally nods in agreement. "That makes sense." He still looks frustrated, but I just deliberately ignore that. There's no point in getting annoyed with him when all he knows is what he knows from either experience or just from what people have told him. So I can't get frustrated so easily.

I suddenly hear a thump and I turn around. Lance is on the ground, unconscious. What the heck happened? Then I see Jeb's hand is clenched into a fist and Wanda isn't saying anything, but she looks relieved. I try to keep the horror off my face, but I'm not sure if I'm successful in doing so. So I quickly turn my face away, so Wanda can't see that I'm horrified that they knocked Lance out so easily.

Jared looks confused by my expression but I don't say anything, I'm too horrified to. I just lean against the counter and stare into space, despite feeling people's eyes on my face. Then I hear Angel gasp and I know she's seen Lance lying on the ground unconscious. I turn to look at her and she's got a disgusted look on her face and she looks away, her teeth clenched. I can easily see she's fighting the urge to say something to Jeb, for being so heartless and cruel to Lance. But I can at least understand why they most likely decided knocking him out was best at this point. He's a threat to this entire colony…and the last thing I want is for these humans to get taken and have souls put in them because Lance turned them all in.

Angel shudders once, absolutely repulsed, but says nothing. For that I'm glad, because that could cause issues between everyone here if she starts a disagreement. And that's the last thing that we really need. I cast a glance towards Jeb and see that he's carrying Lance out of the room. I relax; although I never realized that I had been tense in the first place. Wanda comes and joins us after a few minutes. She just sighs and rolls her neck, a loud crack echoes through the room.

"Jeb is going to keep him in his room, guarded, for now. Until we can either convince that soul to calm down, or we remove him from his body and get him shipped to another planet." Wanda says this pretty calmly.

"How would you send him off without getting caught?" I sound totally surprised.

"It's pretty easy; we've done it before." Jared says this like it's no big deal.

Ian looks tense and frustrated standing next to Wanda. It had taken me a moment to realize that he was there. I quickly turn my attention away from those two.

"How was it so easy?" I ask Jared. "That's supposed to be a hard facility to get into."

He shrugs. "Not really."

I look totally shocked; how is it as easy as he is making it sound? He's making it sound like it was a cake walk! I can only imagine the careful planning that has to go into it though, just so they don't get caught. Jared quirks a smile at my expression, he seems to find it funny. I, however, don't think that it's exactly funny. It's a dangerous thing to attempt to do!

The smile fades, replaced by confusion. "What?"

"You probably just got lucky. You could have gotten taken easily." I am barely speaking above a whisper.

"There was no danger of that happening. Not with her with us." He gestures at Wanda, still looking confused by my reaction.

I slowly just shake my head; even with her there, if they would've faced this issue I doubt she could have stopped them. They would have known they were humans, and we would have stolen that many more lives. I am tired of stealing lives so easily.

"Um…Moon…beam? Are you alright?" He asks, sounding like he doesn't know if he's asking correctly or something.

"I'm fine." I say as emotionlessly as I can manage. "It's just not a safe idea. I wouldn't recommend trying it again. The hospitals are really well watched. At least when I came here that's what I noticed."

"How watched?" Jared is frowning.

"Like, Seekers will respond pretty quickly if something is spotted amiss."

"It wasn't like that before we…did what we did." Jared sighs.

"They wouldn't have known about that." Wanda says suddenly. "We were really sneaky about it."

"They could have noticed something was wrong anyway, just not have done anything about it at the time." Jared runs a hand through his hair. "Oh geez, we really did get lucky."

I don't say anything to that. Where would I be now if they had gotten caught? The answer was pretty obvious to me; not here. I would be living a regular life, completely oblivious to this colony of humans still fighting the gain their world back, and I would be less likely to feel so guilty about taking lives so that I might live. Or that may have been the same. I am not completely sure of myself when it comes to that.

"So even if the soul doesn't calm down he doesn't have a choice." I sigh. "You guys won't be able to ship him off planet."

Jared's face clouds over. "We may end up having to kill him then."

"No!" Angel snaps at him. "That isn't an option either."

I look at her and raise an eyebrow. "But he could get out."

"There's no risk of that happening." Wanda says. "He was blindfolded when he was brought in."

I slump against the counter, tired of this. I'm beginning to think that we have no choice but to let him out and hope he dies in the desert. But Seekers are probably scanning the area so that's an even worse idea. I wrap my arms around myself and stare at the floor. I start thinking of a way to smooth this out so we don't have to try anything too risky. Then it hits me and I look right at Jared.

"Maybe I should talk to him." I say. I look over Jared's shoulder and my heart sinks; Jeb has already taken him out of the room.

"Do you really think that would work?" Angel sounds doubtful.

"I don't know. But I have to try. That's the only way to save him." I talk in a monotone.

"That would be the best way to handle things." Melanie speaks up. "I'll go find Jeb."

She leaves the room before any of us can say a word to her. Jared frowns but doesn't go after her, but it's easy to tell that he wants to.

"I don't think you'll be able to save him either way Moonbeam. There's not really any hope for him." Angel says frowning.

"I have to try," I snap at her. "I'm not going to put him to a death sentence because he won't change who he is."

Angel flinches at my defensive tone. "I don't think you'll be doing anyone a favor trying to save him."

I snort and shake my head at her. I don't understand why she is being the way she is; but I can't change her. Which might explain why she thinks I won't be able to change Lance. But something inside of me doesn't want to let him die; feels that it's totally _wrong_ that we're just going to let him die if he can't be convinced and Jeb gets bored. I may be tired of us murdering so many humans, but that doesn't give us the right to kill him because he isn't being cooperative. Death is wrong to me, no matter what, unless it is an extreme circumstance. And even then I really don't know about it.

I finally just let out a giant huff of air. "Can't you understand that ending someone's life for them without a choice is wrong?"

Angel rolls her eyes. "In his case it really isn't."

I stare at her, shocked. "You do realize that makes you no better than the humans right?"

She flinches and doesn't answer and I just keep my gaze on her. I wait for an answer from her, knowing that's the worst insult possible to throw at her. But she avoids my gaze, hurt on her face, but I feel no guilt, I feel nothing. After all, she was agreeing to _murder_ one of our own. Not exactly something she should be okay with.

She finally says. "I know. But we won't be safe with him here."

I stare at her. "You are freaking _crazy_. First you say murder is wrong, and then you're willing to turn a blind eye to it!"

She meets my gaze. "You know I'm right."

"No, you're completely _wrong_. And so is everyone else who believes murdering him is the right way to go."

I about bolt from the room when Jared grabs my arm. I scowl at him and try to jerk away, but he won't let go of me.

"I need to be alone right now. Let go of me!" I snap at him.

His grip only tightens. "I doubt Jeb's going to kill him. You should know that. Despite what he says, he doesn't go around killing people. That's not how he is."

I glower at him. "He still might kill him. I can't just sit here and let it happen."

"Mel's talking to him. Relax already!"

He finally lets go of my arm and I just walk out of the room.


End file.
